Kansas City opened 5-0, then lost two straight, the latest a 28-24 defeat to Denver last week. Kelce played through the pain and caught five passes for 67 yards. He worked back to full practice by Friday and carries no injury designation into Sunday’s 1 p.m.
Travis Kelce has been nursing a sore ankle for about two weeks, and the Chiefs badly need it to hold up. ET home game against the New York Jets.
After missing the playoffs last year, the Chiefs cannot afford a third loss in a row.
Kelce has 29 catches for 410 yards and two touchdowns through seven games, and he has cleared 50 yards in five of them. Over the last two games he has nine catches on 15 targets for 111 yards and a score. For a 37-year-old on a sore ankle, that is a steady line. At Arrowhead this season, Kelce has 16 catches on 22 targets for 225 yards and a touchdown. He came back on a one-year deal worth up to $15 million after weighing retirement, and this could be his last season. He is the fastest tight end to reach 13,000 receiving yards, doing it in 192 games, and he still leads this team in catches and yards. Last season he still made an 11th straight Pro Bowl with 76 catches and 851 yards, even as his numbers dipped.
The ankle has not slowed his production much. They had a chance to stretch a late lead to six points and could not. Mahomes is also back from the torn ACL he suffered in December, so the franchise passer is on the field and the offense is moving. That is what makes the finish so hard to explain. On paper, the matchup helps. The Jets have been one of the softer defenses against tight ends this year, and receiver Garrett Wilson is out with a concussion. That hurts New York’s offense, so Kansas City may only need a clean, controlled game to get back on track. The bigger picture is Kelce himself.